Cinco De Mayo
Happy Cinco De Mayo, to everyone who is celebrating for the right reasons. I hope most people know by now that Cinco De Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. May 5th, 1862, was the day that Mexico fought in the Battle of Puebla against the French and won back more territory for their country. The victory was significant for the early Mexicans as it boosted their morale and gave hope that they could eventually defeat the French and regain control of their country.
As for how Cinco de Mayo became a widely celebrated holiday in the United States, it’s a bit of a mystery. Some say it’s because Mexican-Americans wanted to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Puebla as a symbol of their pride and resilience. Others will use it as just an excuse to have a good time and drink margaritas, which is completely fine of course.
View this post on Instagram
Either way, the holiday has become a popular celebration of Mexican culture, and people all over the world now gather to enjoy Mexican food, music, and of course, those delicious margaritas. So In honor of one of the most fun holidays of the year, I have come up with four fun and delicious margarita recipes!
But when you raise a glass on Cinco de Mayo, just remember that you’re toasting one of the greatest victories in Mexican History.
Margarita Time
The heart and soul behind every amazing margarita is a sour mix, I worked behind a bar for two years so I’m experienced enough to tell you how to make the stuff the pros use. A sour mix is really simple to prepare but it takes time, a bag of lemons and limes, with a cup of sugar is really all you need. You have to juice at least a cup of both lemon and lime juice to make enough sour mix for about 6 generously sized margaritas. The next step of the Sour mix is to make a simple syrup, and I promise it’s easier than you may think. Put 2 cups of water in a pot or pan and add a cup of sugar, wait for that to reach a slow boil, and let that reduce slightly to get sweeter. Let that boil for about 5 minutes then set it aside to cool. Once it’s cooled, put your fresh simple syrup, lemon, and lime juice in a bottle and mix. Congratulations you have made an expert-level sour mix, and are ready to make incredible margaritas.
In the case of salt and making rims you can do that for these if you want by swiping a slice of lemon around the rim of your glass. Then place that in a plate of salt, and rim down.
1. The Plain Jane
The Plain Jane is a very simple margarita, it’s kinda like the template for the others we will be making alongside it. Another name for the plain Jane is the skinny margarita, but we changed the name to make it more fun. Also this margarita is as basic as it gets, hence the name the Plain Jane. Depending on how you made your sour mix this will either come out sour or sweeter. If it’s too sour for your liking you can always add a splash of simple syrup again
Ingredients
-2 shots Tequila
-lots of ice
-sour mix as needed
2. The babblerita
The babblerita is a drink that I invented in honor of the endlessly funny Latin babbler.
Now this drink is really more about the colors, and what is important about this drink is how you set it up. You’ll need a blue juice of your choice and grenadine syrup.
Ingredients
-2 shots tequila
-lots of ice
-2 shots of sour mix
-fill remaining with juice of choice
-grenadine syrup
Now to set this up you will need to layer the drink with the classic Latin Babbler colors, put the tequila on the bottom then fill it with sour mix and ice. At this point I filled the rest with blue curaçao but like I said you can use whatever blue drink you want. Finally give a very gentle pour on top with the grenadine syrup to top it off. If you’ve done this right it’ll look very pretty and you won’t be able to stop babbling on about it.
3. El Matador
I’ll be honest this is the most childish one but it’s on the list because it’s fun to say the name and act like the drink is very adult. In this drink, we are gonna stick to the theme of red and go far with it. You’ll need any red juice along with what you already have. For this, I used a fruit punch, the thicker the punch is the better for this one. If you have made this drink correctly you should have a bright red cup called the El Matador that you can roll your Rs on the whole night.
Ingredients
-2 shots of tequila
-2 shots of sour mix
-lots of ice
-fruit punch
-grenadine syrup (why not right)
4. The Booty Mover
This margarita is scientifically proven to cause uncontrollable dancing to a beat even if there is no music playing. This is again a very simple margarita but in my opinion, the best-tasting one I think you could make. For this, we will need a purée or juice from the best fruit in the world, the mango. As well as all the stuff you already have. The only problem with this drink is as soon as you have a few you can’t make another because you can’t stay still without busting a move.
Ingredients
-2 shots of tequila (at this point we aren’t measuring right?)
-2 shots of sour mix
-lots of ice
-fill with mango purée
-top with splash grenadine
Happy Cinco de Mayo to everybody celebrating, and remember to please drink responsibly!
